BROWNSBURG, Ind.
(AP) - Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has demanded that Rep. Todd
Rokita take down yard signs it says give the false impression the president
endorsed the Indiana Republican’s Senate bid, two people with direct
knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press.

The rebuke came
after two volunteers who led Trump’s bare-bones 2016 campaign in Vice
President Mike Pence’s home state endorsed Rokita during an Indianapolis
news conference last week.

The Rokita signs,
which have gone up since that event, proclaim in large white letters
“Endorsed by Trump/Pence,” with smaller letters below adding “2016 Indiana
Team Leaders.”

Rokita spokesman
Nathan Brand refused to say if the campaign will comply with the Trump
campaign’s request.

“We do not comment
on yard sign strategy,” Brand said in a statement that reiterated the
endorsement by the two volunteers.

Tony Samuel, one of
the volunteers who endorsed Rokita, told the AP that the Trump campaign
texted him Monday night to voice displeasure over the signage.

Trump’s re-election
campaign is concerned the signs imply an endorsement that has not been made,
a campaign official told the AP. The campaign also asked that Rokita’s
campaign certify in writing once the signs have been taken down, the other
person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Both spoke on
condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss
the matter.

John Pence, the
vice president’s nephew and deputy executive director of the Trump
re-election campaign, declined to comment on the campaign’s demand for
Rokita to remove the signs.

The rebuke is a
harsh blow for Rokita, who carries a cardboard cutout of Trump to campaign
rallies, dons a “Make America Great Again” hat in TV ads and has ridiculed
one opponent, fellow Rep. Luke Messer, for being a “Never Trumper.”

Messer disputes
that charge, though he was critical of Trump during the 2016 general
election.

The two are locked
in a tight three-way race with former state Rep. Mike Braun that will
determine who faces Sen. Joe Donnelly in November’s general election.

The signage flap
comes in the homestretch of a bitter GOP primary contest in which all three
candidates have fallen over each other to portray themselves as Trump’s
staunchest supporter in Indiana, which holds its primary May 8.

The leaders of
Trump’s 2016 Indiana campaign, Samuel and Rex Early, noted when they
endorsed Rokita that they were doing it as individuals.

“We are not
speaking for the president or the White House,” said Samuel, a veteran
political operative and longtime Rokita friend.

But since then,
Rokita has aggressively touted the endorsement at campaign appearances,
during a recent debate and in his latest TV add titled simply “TRUMP.”

Rokita, a lawyer
who has been in elected office for 15 years, jumped into the race in August.
He has sought to portray himself as a political outsider and the one true
embodiment of the president’s populist appeal. In separate TV ads, he calls
for English to be made the official language of the U.S., drinks beer and
fires a rifle that appears to be an AR-15.

But the AP reported
earlier this month that he had harsh words for Trump in February 2016, when
he called the eventual president “vulgar, if not profane” during a
little-noticed interview with Indianapolis-based WXIN TV.

Rokita, at the time
was a supporter of Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican presidential primary.

“When you see Marco
contrasted with Donald Trump - I mean someone who is vulgar, if not
profane,” Rokita said. “At some point you have to be presidential. People
expect that and you see that in Marco Rubio.”